Health insurance is a racket!

I said this as I tossed my latest statement from my insurance company on the kitchen table.

It said that I owed a lab in California $95, which I was expecting. I have not met (what I thought to be) my $1,500 deductible yet, so I pay out of pocket until I do. I get this.

The first unpleasant surprise was that only $85 of the charges would count towards my annual deductible because

Reason: M25 - Your coverage does not provide benefits for charges in excess of our reasonable allowance. This amount is your liability.

Considering they have a vested interest in not paying what something actually costs, I have a hard time with this. It would be similar to me walking into our local café and ordering a sandwich, then telling them how much I would pay for it after I’d eaten it.

The second unwelcome surprise was that because this provider, a dentist, was “out of network”, the $85 goes towards the much higher “out of network” deductible. It reminds me of an exclusive high school clique - if my provider does all the random "right" things, she can be included. I asked this my dentist why she is not in one of these networks, and she said it was because they try to tell her how to treat her patients. I don’t blame her – I wouldn’t want a big corporation telling me how to do my job.

Not that I have a choice of what dentist or doctor I go to. I thank my lucky stars that there is a one of each – part time only – in my little Nebraska town. Because of the limited choice of providers, there are only a few insurance companies my employer can consider.

This is where a little healthy, capitalistic competition could come in real handy for my rural community. The option of a “public” health insurance plan – one that is sponsored by the federal government instead of a for-profit corporation – gives people like me more choices, controls costs, and helps keep a private insurer honest. Folks more informed than me have given the idea of a public plan far more thought than I, take a look here (pdf).

It also seems that the American voters support having the option of a public plan. And why not? If private insurance is better than the public insurance plan, people will choose private insurance. Meanwhile, small business owners and farmers in my community need an affordable health insurance option.

Some of my neighbors, and I'd imagine some of yours, are very unhappy about the idea of a public plan option. But for rural communities like mine, a public plan may be the only way to assure affordable health care. I encourage you to educate yourself on what the public plan is and engage people you know on the subject in order to debunk the myths of what a public plan means.

Natasha's note: More on why sustainable food depends on rural healthcare, links in last paragraph added by me. Oh, and update ... catch Jill Richardson's latest on healthcare billing and IT, which explains where overhead costs come from.

(Photo credit: Tracy Olson on Flickr.)